Amy Winehouse death anniversary comes with 'lots of tears and lots of laughter'

View full sizeThe Associated PressAmy Winehouse died a year ago today (Monday, July 23, 2012).

Singer Amy Winehouse's
father says it's tough dealing with the loss of his daughter, but he's
happy she is having a helpful impact on the world through the foundation
named after her.

"Even after a small space in time — we're
talking a year since Amy passed away — we are beginning, well, Amy is
beginning, to have a positive effect on a lot of disadvantaged young
people's lives," Mitch Winehouse said in an interview Friday.

Mitch
Winehouse says he expects Monday — the one-year anniversary of Amy's
death — to be difficult, but he will spend the day with family and
friends. First they'll go to Amy's house for Jewish prayer and to be
with the singer's fans. Then close friends will head to a party at Jazz
After Dark, which was "Amy's favorite jazz bar."

"There are going to be lots of tears and lots of laughter and that is exactly how Amy would have wanted it," he said.

Amy
Winehouse was one of music's critically revered singers, praised for
her touching lyrical content, soulful tone and authenticity. Her debut,
"Frank," was a U.K. success, but her breakthrough came with 2007's "Back
to Black," a multiplatinum effort that won her five Grammy Awards.
Mitch Winehouse says during that peak, "she was Adele and Lady Gaga
rolled into one."

In the United Kingdom, the Winehouse family has
raised more than $1 million and has assisted various charities. In
America, the group is working with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra to
develop "after school music club houses" and feed hungry children
throughout Louisiana.

The foundation has raised profits from
donations and the release of the Amy's posthumous album "Lioness: Hidden
Treasures" and a book by Mitch Winehouse titled "Amy, My Daughter,"
released this summer.

"I don't feel any accomplishment or any
joy," Mitch Winehouse said of the book. "The reality is I shouldn't have
had to written the book in the first place."

"I wrote it fairly
quickly after Amy passed away. I found writing it quite cathartic and I
thought it would help me in my recovery, and to a certain extent it
has," he continued. "But reading the book back for edits was very
difficult indeed; more difficult than writing the book."

Mitch
Winehouse also said there's more Amy Winehouse music on the horizon:
"We're working with (music producers) Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson to see
what they've got. But we have to be mindful; we don't want to put
anything out that could be damaging. It wouldn't be right for Amy's
fans."

A film on his daughter's life is also a possibility, he says.

"Whatever
we do we have to make sure it's done in good taste," he said. "We don't
want a sensationalized movie going out, you know, but equally there's
no point in sort of massaging the fact that Amy was a alcoholic and drug
addict; no point in pretending that didn't happen."